Residency rule may be thing of the past in Des Plaines

June 10, 2013|By Jonathan Bullington, Chicago Tribune reporter

Des Plaines officials are close to repealing a residency requirement for some department heads. (GEORGE THOMPSON, CHICAGO TRIBUNE)

As the search for a new community and economic development director begins in Des Plaines, some city officials say a more than 10-year-old provision requiring certain city department heads to live in Des Plaines has hurt their ability to recruit top talent for those jobs.

"In 2013, for me to go out and expect somebody to uproot their family … to have them come here, I just think it's outdated and I think it's a failed policy," said Ald. Mark Walsten, 6th. "You are cutting out such a huge amount of the talent pool that I don't think it's realistic anymore."

Aldermen voted 5-3 on first reading last week to repeal the ordinance requiring seven department heads to live in Des Plaines within 12 months of their date of hire. The positions affected by the law are: city manager, police chief, fire chief, public works director, engineering director, city attorney and community and economic development director.

Municipal employee residency requirements exist in varying degrees throughout the Chicago area. Some, such as northwest suburban Arlington Heights, require the village manager to live in town within a "reasonable time" after appointment, according to village ordinance.

Niles village code requires all employees within six months of employment to live in a geographic area bounded by the Wisconsin state line to the north, Lake Michigan to the east, Cermak Road/Route 56 to the south and Illinois State Route 47 to the west. Exemptions are allowed under the ordinance for "undue hardship."

Fourteen of the 25 municipalities that responded to a 2005 Northwest Municipal Conference survey had some sort of residency requirement for city/village managers, or managers and some department heads, said Mark Fowler, NWMC executive director.

Some of those communities still maintain those requirements, while others have repealed them, said Fowler, director of a NWMC that represents 42 municipalities and one township in the north and northwest suburbs. Some communities negotiate financial assistance for employees required to relocate to town, Fowler said.

Park Ridge used to require its city manager to live in the city, but officials eliminated that condition in the past year to expand the pool of potential candidates for that position, said City Manager Shawn Hamilton.

The former city manager received city assistance with a housing loan, Hamilton said, but that assistance is not spelled out in city ordinance. Rather, it was part of the former city manager's employment agreement, Hamilton said.

In Des Plaines, supporters of the residency rule point to the 2001 advisory referendum that convinced the city to create the law. Roughly 65 percent of voters said "yes" to the residency requirement, according to the Cook County clerk's website.

"If you think this should be done, let's put it back to the people and let the people speak," said Ald. Dick Sayad, 4th, addressing Mayor Matt Bogusz. "They put it on here, and I don't want to wash it off with an eraser."

Bogusz said the requirement has "the best intentions at heart," and that its proponents "wanted to make sure employees were connected to their community -- that they were around when emergencies occurred."

But he said its effect on the city's recruitment efforts has resulted in a competitive disadvantage. "Most of the people in the market that live relatively close to us right now won't consider us for department head level jobs," Bogusz said.

Some officials, though, disagreed over whether the residency requirement actually limits the city's ability to fill open positions with the best and brightest.

"We want people who want to work and live in this town," Sayad said. "If you want to get paid the good pay we're giving everybody (and) you don't want to move in this town, then you know what, I don't need you."

But Heidi Voorhees, former village manager of Wilmette and current owner of a firm that helps municipalities fill leadership positions, said there is "no question" that a residency requirement shrinks the pool of available job candidates.

"I completely respect the decision to establish whatever parameter they think is appropriate," Voorhees said. But those looking to step into high-level municipal positions have expressed an unwillingness to pack up their families and move to a new community, she said.

The challenge of selling a home -- or affording a new home in a more affluent community -- has also caused some government leaders to reassess residency requirements, Voorhees said.

"Parents are far less willing to uproot their children at the junior high, high school or elementary school level, even for a better school system," she said.